


Memories Alive

by cauldronofdoom



Series: Living with the Mob [4]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Multi, Pepper Pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-22
Updated: 2012-08-22
Packaged: 2017-11-12 16:29:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/493315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cauldronofdoom/pseuds/cauldronofdoom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been one year since Tony Stark dissapeared. Pepper still misses him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memories Alive

**Author's Note:**

> Direct continuation of Great Minds Think Alike.

Pepper didn’t like boxing. She jumped at the first hit in every round, and at many others during the match. She couldn’t comprehend the mindset that had nothing but beating up another human that you didn’t even know as a sport. She didn’t like the loudness or crudeness of the crowds that showed up to boxing matches. She didn’t like the smell of beer that permeated the arena. 

Happy liked boxing, though, so here she was. 

(Besides, she knew he was bored to death at the art shows she dragged him to, but he always smiled and told her it was fine, he was fine, take her time. It wasn’t a bribe to get her to come, she knew he’d escort her even if she refused to ever watch boxing, but it did remind her of why she put up with it when someone spilt their drink on her sleeve while cheering.)

He did let her pull them out the moment the last fight was over. They were always the first people out of the stadium at these things. She knew he didn’t mind too much. If he wanted the full experience, he went with his buddies, not her.

Which reminded her… “Why did you bring me here?” She asked, curious. She’d only been asked to come on Wednesday, and Happy had been acting odd for days. She was so busy she’d barely noticed him turning off the news every time she walked into a room, but his sudden revert to ‘hide the celebrity’ mindset had tipped her off. 

He fidgeted, then led her over to a small café nearby that she liked. She let him keep his silence until they were seated and had their drinks, but then she fixed him with a stern glare. 

“Miss Morelly gave me the tickets.” He admitted, and she blinked. Bobbi had been interviewing to get out of SI before SHIELD’s takeover and had accepted a better offer somewhere else. Pepper had missed the cheerful, somewhat dry blonde, but she hadn’t thought Happy had been that close to him. “She won them in a raffle, but doesn’t like boxing. She knew I did, and thought date night might keep your mind off of, well…” He trailed off, and she continued to stare him down. “Off of Tony.” He admitted, rubbing aat the back of his head. 

Off Tony. She blinked, then felt tears start to well up in her eyes. He’d been gone a full year, and she’d lost her last bit of hope when news of Stane’s death reached her. Even the gang he’d affiliated himself with, Hydra, was going through a rough spot. If he’d still been alive, that would have been when he’d appear.

She refused to wish he’d been a prisoner for a year. That was cruel.

“Oh, Pep, I’m sorry! Please don’t cry, love. I just… I was just hoping to keep you from being reminded and spending the whole day moping.”

“Yeah, that’s something no one wants. You’re too awesome to mope.” Pepper froze at the unexpected voice, noting in the back of her mind that Happy froze too. Both turned, almost in unison, to see the man talking to him.

He was dressed for the baseball game earlier, his face painted and everything. Most people wouldn’t look past it, but for Pepper it was second nature. The facial hair was a big hint, but anyone could affect that. The shape of the eyes, the sweep of the cheekbones, the stubborn line of the jaw, the shape of the nose… “Tony?” She breathed, wondering if this could possibly be a dream.

He crouched down next to their table, bringing his eyes to Pepper’s level. “Yeah, Pep, Happy. It’s me. It’s Tony.” His gaze was flicking between them, but she knew both of theirs were locked on him. She reached out one trembling hand and he caught it with a smile, bringing it to his cheek.

The tableau held until someone else appeared behind Tony, dropping two more drinks on the table and hauling a chair up until it almost knocked Tony over. He laughed (she knew that laugh, remembered that laugh. It was the same one he made when something he was working on exploded, slightly nervous yet obviously full of true humour) and took it while the mystery person grabbed another.

Tony had dropped her hand, and Pepper found her voice after a moment. She had to interact with this apparition, prove it was real. “Tony? What? Where? Why? Wha… Just, Tony?” She wasn’t making coherent questions, but he smiled again.

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m real. I was hiding from Stane for a while, then couldn’t just show back up without being asked an awful lot of questions I wouldn’t be able to answer and never seeing again some people I’m very fond of.” He flicked a glance and smile up at the person next to him, who Pepper noticed suddenly was a tall blonde man who was looking totally besotted with Tony regardless of who he was paying attention to.

Her eyes narrowed. “’Very fond of’?” She asked, her tone one Tony would recognize as meaning business, polite as it was. 

It was the blonde who answered, tugging Tony’s left hand up onto the table as he did so. “Married to.” He clarified, dropping a kiss on Tony’s temple as the missing genius blushed. 

She noticed something else, and shot the blonde a warning glare. “You don’t have a ring.” It was both an observation and a question so sharp it would cut dimonds.

He didn’t seem bothered, though. “Haven’t had a chance to get one.” He shrugged. “I was just planning on proposing today. Taking my name was entirely Tony’s idea.”

“That’s doesn’t… You can’t just…” She spluttered, and Happy covered one of her hands with his to offer his support. He was keeping silent so far, but she knew he was thinking furiously. “Marriage doesn’t work that way.”

Tony smirked. “It’s not like all the paperwork wouldn’t have to be forged anyway.”

The blonde shot him a quelling look, then Pepper a sheepish one. “I’m afraid that if I ever ended up in a Justicar’s office, signing a marriage licence would be the last thing on his mind.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she put the pieces together in her mind. She’d taken a crash course on the gangs and mobs in the city (what was known of them, anyway) after Tony’s disappearance. She’d hoped, in those first few weeks, that if she could just find him, she’d sell everything from military secrets to SI’s staple purchases to get him back. Nothing useful had come of it, since she’d come to her senses before actually trying to make contact, but she still remembered all she’d learned. There had been an artist’s rendering of someone who was suddenly looking very familiar made after an undercover cop had gotten killed over a year previously, and she’d stared at it for over an hour just in case she met him at the corner store one day. “You’re…”

“Steve.” He cut her off, looking around pointedly. She nodded. The name she had almost said was ‘Captain Steve Rogers’, so she figured she was correct. If so, Tony had made himself a powerful friend. He smiled his own sharp grin. “How’s life as a CEO treating you?”

“She didn’t need your help.” Happy announced, causing three pairs of eyes to snap to him. He was glaring at Steve now, his posture faintly aggressive. “She’s brilliant at what she does. Even if you whispered in an ear or two, she owes you nothing. You have no hold over her.” His voice was hard, but ‘Steve’ only laughed, all his tension draining as he did so.

“I’m not threatening your girl, you can cool down now.” He said, still chuckling. “Tony’d probably make me sleep on the couch if I tried, and it’s my bed. No, I’m just making sure we understand each other.” He pressed a kiss to Tony’s temple quickly. 

Tony picked up the conversation, spelling it out a little more just in case. “He doesn’t care who’s CEO. He’d have been fine with the whole company being absorbed, not kept as a daughter firm. Pepper’s appointment was my desire, not his. I have my own say, my own voice. I’m not a flunky; I’m not there because of threats or anything. I’m there because I want to be, because I like it. And I’m in Steve’s bed for the same reasons. I’m not trading sex for anything more earth shattering than the occasional breakfast in bed, and even that I can usually accomplish by whining and Bambi eyes too.”

Pepper eyed them cautiously. The deciding factor was the way the big, tough mobster melted at the words, turning soft around the edges and cuddling Tony closer. “I see. And he would be trading it for you to go to the game today?” She asked with a raised brow, turning the conversation to one more appropriate for a public venue.  
*  
They chatted for well over an hour, but by then Pepper was starting to drift off. She had an early morning meeting, and had rigidly enforced a sleeping schedule since her promotion. She’d hugged both of them, while Happy had been content to merely shake Steve’s hand.

“You’re always getting in all sorts of trouble.” She whispered in Tony’s ear, and she’d felt his amused huff against her neck.

“Running off to live a life of debauchery with a pretty blonde? Pep, you’ve known me for years. This is not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing.” She laughed at the words, the same ones he’d used time and time again to avoid a lecture over whatever trouble he’d been getting into.

“You’ll come visit?” Happy asked him during his own hug. “You need to come pick up your tools. I had to help Stane clean out your apartment, and mentioned that I could use another set so there was one permanently in the company car.”

Tony’s eyes had teared up then, though he hadn’t actually cried. He’d made Steve promise, and then they were gone. She hadn’t even seen them leave. Maybe it was a mob thing. 

She turned silently and clung to Happy, crying tears of joy.

Tony was alive, Stane was dead, and everything was right with her world.

Maybe she could come to like boxing after all.


End file.
